Flower power in the neighborhood

 

Although it was overcast today, the flowers were popping up and shining brightly. Knowing about the Cavendish underpass from previous years, I made the short bike ride through cote st Luc and to the train tracks where Cavendish goes under. Both sides of the road have grassy embankments with large flower and shrub gardens and tall pine trees. It's pretty noisy there due to the traffic but not so bad on a weekend like today. To paint the tulips I did most of the background first including the dark dirt (PBr7 burnt umber + PBk6 lamp black) and green foliage (PY154 + PG36 + PBk31) leaving blank space for the tulips flowers, stems and leaves. The fun part was colouring in the the tulips with almost pure yellow, magenta (PR122), and pyrol red in the background tulips (PR254). The numbers are pigment codes, it helps me remember what I did for next time.

White, yellow, pink tulips, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, May 2024

Using a similar technique I painted another part of the garden with almost all yellow tulips, a few magenta ones, and a flowering yellow shrub in the background. I applied dots of ochre (PBr7) and orange (PO62) over the dark dirt colour because that is what Van Gogh seemed to do in his famous Irises painting. I got to see some of his work in Amsterdam up close, but not the irises painting, which hangs in California.

Yellow tulips, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, May 2024

I took a crack at the pink flowering tree across the tree next to the auto shop. There was a neat contrast between the grey structure and black tires sitting beside the delicate foliage. I am still working out the best way to paint such a tree, there may be a few days left to get it right. Anyways, it was great to ride around the neighborhood and paint some colourful scenes today.

Pink tree near auto shop, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, May 2024

Twisty trees and bus

Continuing on the theme of spring trees, this scene shows some of the twisty trees at Loyola Park down the street. The new leaf buds had a dark yellow greenish hue, and the grass was starting to become chartreuse and green. In the background is one of the many apartments on Fielding Avenue, some cars and a city bus with its distinctive yellow, green, and cyan symbol. The walking path ties together the composition by drawing the foreground across into the middle ground. As usual this year, I signed with PJD 24.

Twisty trees and bus, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, May 2024

New leaves and flowers on trees

After work I rode down to the park near Lachine with all the sculptures, hoping to catch the trees with white flowers. They were just putting out the first leaves, a dark red colour in fact. Hopefully they will flower again soon, I painted these trees a few years ago on May 18th with pink flowers, and May 28th when they had brilliant red leaves. The painting was done by applying the background sky and river, then over-painting the tree and finishing with the red dots for the leaves. Pinkish and green highlights made the tree bark glow.
 

New leaves down by river, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, May 2024

 

On Lunch break I grabbed some bread and a sandwich from Snowdon Bakery, then made a quick painting across the street of this tree with white-chartreuse flowers. There are quite a few different species of trees that flower like magnolia, cranberry and cherry. This may be some sort of lilac bush, although lilac flowers come later in the year.

Flowering tree Harley st, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, May 2024

World Inspired Landscapes: Mozambique

Mozambique is a low lying country on the south east coast of Africa facing the direction of Madagascar and the Pacific Ocean. It is rich in mineral resources, wildlife and a distinct Swahili culture. Since ancient times, it was an active port dealing with Arab and Indian seafaring traders until the Portuguese imposed colonialism around the turn of the 15th century. It really wasn't until 1975 that is was independent, making it one of the longest standing colonies in Africa. Since then, much of the Portuguese architecture, culture and language remains, intermixed with Swahili culture and millions of refuges from other parts of south Africa. There are currently political instabilities and insurgencies which hold back Mozambique from realizing the full wealth of the land. One commodity that was prominent in the country, and one reason it garnered so much interest from Europe is the abundant gold. There are some official, and a lot of unofficial mines, making it a dangerous and damaging occupation. To extract gold a mine pit or tunnel can be dug, or, the entire lands can be strip mined. To pan the gold, highly toxic mercury must be added which extracts gold dust and particles. 

In the painting you can see some people peering down into a mine full of gold veins. Its obviously an embellishment, but there are images like this on the internet, and one can imagine 5 hundred years ago maybe there were sparkling caves full of rich gold reserves waiting to plucked from the rock. The painting was done with iridescent moonstone, (PW20) actually a sparkly mica-based paint. The black is lamp black (PBk6), yellow vanadium (PY184) and some yellow ochre (PY43).  Its not obvious from the scan but the painting does sparkle and shimmer when held and angles to the light due to the mica. 

World Inspired Landscapes: Mozambique, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, May 2024

Painting around Hall Building Rainy Day

After a pleasant bike ride downtown to pick up the final exams a sudden rain shower broke out. People ran for the building, probably students heading out to the 2:45 pm exams. I was just waiting for the exam pick up office to open and made this painting standing under the Hall building overhang and looking south on Bishop street. I started with a rough outline including the buildings and running people using dilute black paint. As I filled in the colours the rain was pelting me despite the shelter. To do the sky I applied phthalo blue (PB15) with some black (PBk6) mixed in on the paper.

Rainy day on Bishop st., watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, April 2024

This was the first one I did as the rain started. The C is backwards because it is meant to be viewed from Maisonneuve. You can see the contrast between the old brick and concrete buildings and the modern green glass and steel sky scrapers.

Rainy day on Bishop st. Concordia ,watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, April 2024

This is the kind of scene that will give me nightmares for weeks, the dreaded hallway full of lockers. It was challenging to say the least, this scene was a wall of caramel and beige tones and an infinite row of lockers. The lights are simple white shapes outlines in yellow, green and black to give that eerie glow.

Hall in the Hall Building, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, April 2024

Final Exam Hall Building

The final exam was on the downtown campus today at the Hall building, shown in the background of the painting. I showed up a bit early to find where all the rooms were, that can take anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour its so confusing but I managed to locate them all in short order across two different buildings. At any rate, there was a few minutes to make a quick painting standing on one corner looking across at the Hall building which has not changed much on the outside since its creation. Inside there is a hodgepodge of renovations done over the decades. Most recently they have been going floor by floor redoing the surfaces, plumbing, bathrooms, floors, and classrooms. Quite a few people were out and about, a few stressed out students no doubt. The painting composition makes use of a strong 2 point perspective, the sides of the square building receding off into the distance. They have an interesting metal sculpture too, it rotates inwards with the wind. Tomorrow I pick up the exams downtown and weather permitting I can squeeze in another painting. 

Final Exam Hall Building, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, April 2024

Wellington Street Verdun

After painting up on Maisonneuve I continued the theme of store fronts with this scene on Wellington street in Verdun. For people of my parents generation they knew Verdun as a working neighborhood surrounded by warehouses and factories. Nowadays it is rated the coolest place on the planet, with Wellington street at the epicenter. We went to a great Tandoori restaurant on my birthday, and today I got some takeaway and brought it home today. This scene shows various storefronts with their colourful signage. The whole facade including the balconies was added on top of the old building which would have had a relatively flat facade in the old days. A lot of Verdun is being gentrified in this manner, which had the negative effect of pricing the neighborhood out of range for long time locals. 

Wellington Street Signs, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, April 2024

 I took another crack at painting the Eglise metro, its one of the most difficult stations to make look good. It looks like a concrete and metal cheese cake went through the blender or something. This angle has some potential but it would look better if I can somehow fit in the bus and more people.

de l'Eglise lamp, watercolour 5 x  7" cold press, April 2024